Tag Archives: Beat ‘Em Up

Golden Axe, Megadrive/Genesis

This conversion of the classic Sega arcade game was first released on the Megadrive/Genesis in 1989 and is a reasonably accurate port of the famous hack and slash action game.

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Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder, Arcade

Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder is the 1992 sequel to the classic 1989 arcade game, Golden Axe. It features four new playable characters, more detailed graphics and four-player simultaneous gameplay (although that was dependent on the cabinet – variations were available to arcade operators).

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Shadow of the Beast III, Amiga

Shadow of the Beast III is the third game in the colourful and technically-impressive action/platform series. It was once again developed by Reflections and published by Psygnosis. This time in 1992.

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Shadow of the Beast II, Amiga

In Shadow of the Beast II you again play as ‘Aarbron‘, the bipedal being who was turned into a half-beast by the evil wizard Maletoth (who you defeated in the first Shadow of the Beast), and who is now in half-beast, mostly human, form and who is searching for his kidnapped sister.

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Shadow of the Beast, Amiga

Shadow of the Beast is a side-scrolling action game developed by Reflections and published by Psygnosis in 1989. When the game first came out it was praised for its graphics, but not for its gameplay, which is frankly paper thin.

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Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax, Commodore 64

The sequel to 1987’s cult hit Barbarian, Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax is a similar fighting game, but with more variety than the first game, and the possibility of exploring the actual world by moving from screen to screen (“wow! What a technological advancement!“). Barbarian II was first released in 1988 by Palace Software. The game was later licensed by Epyx for distribution in North America under the title of “Axe of Rage“.

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Barbarian, Commodore 64

Palace Software‘s Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior is a fondly-remembered and controversial one-on-one fighting game from 1987, where two gladiatorial combatants slug it out to the death in a variety of different locations. Actually, there are two different versions of this game, each with different backgrounds. The first version has a throne room and then a pit. The second version has a meadow and a clearing in a forest. I’m not sure why there are two versions of this game, but that definitely seems to be the case.

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Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Sega CD

The Sega CD version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is completely different to the platform game of the same name developed by Bits Studios, although it is still based on the 1994 film starring Robert De Niro as The Monster. This game was developed by Psygnosis and published as a double pack, alongside Bram Stoker’s Dracula, by Sony Imagesoft in 1994. As far as I know it wasn’t released as a stand-alone title.

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Frankenstein: The Monster Returns, NES/Famicom

Frankenstein: The Monster Returns was developed by TOSE Co. Ltd. and published for the Nintendo Entertainment System by Bandai, in North America only, in 1991. It is a side-scrolling platform game with beat ’em up elements, in much the same style as the early Castlevania games.

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Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!, NES/Famicom

Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! was developed by Nintendo R&D3 and was first published by Nintendo in 1987. It is considered by many to be one of the greatest boxing video games ever made, with well-animated cartoon-style characters and an intuitive and responsive control system.

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